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Clinic Kicks Off Another Semester with Spring 2024 Bootcamp

The Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic kicked off the Spring 2024 semester with another informative and inspiring Bootcamp. This Bootcamp treated five new Clinic students and ten returning students to three days of learning and discussion. Speakers included speaker Daniel Novack, Vice President, Associate General Counsel at Penguin Random House, on ongoing legal challenges to book-banning legislation; a panel of some of our stellar local journalism clients and co-counsel, including Teresa Bonner at Penn Live, Jo Ciavaglia at Bucks County Courier Times, Janon Fisher at Newsday, Paula Knudsen Burke at Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and clinic alum Connor Flannery; Prof. James Grimmelmann on the ever-changing landscape of Internet-related First Amendment issues; and a panel of returning students Cam Misner, Sabrina Palacios and Matt Hornung on ways to get the most out of one’s clinic experience.

We are grateful to all our speakers for making this Bootcamp special, and we look forward to the semester ahead.

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Clinic Represents New York Newspaper in First Amendment Retaliation Suit

The Clinic filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in December 2023 against Delaware County on behalf of Catskills-based newspaper The Reporter. The suit claims that county officials violated the paper’s constitutional rights in de-designating it as an official paper and in issuing what has amounted to an illegal gag order for county employees. Read The Times Union coverage of the suit here and Cornell Law School’s coverage of the suit here.

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Clinic Files Lawsuit Challenging Gag Order as Unconstitutional

NEWFANE, NY – On June 21, 2023, Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic filed a lawsuit in Niagara County Supreme Court on behalf of Tracy Murphy, animal rights activist and founder of Asha’s Farm Sanctuary in Newfane New York.  The suit, an Article 78 petition, challenges a gag order Newfane Town Court Justice Bruce Barnes imposed on Murphy restricting her First Amendment rights while she awaits trial on a misdemeanor larceny charge stemming from a dispute over the ownership of two cows.

The gag order imposes a blanket ban on Murphy’s use of any form of social media – which the order defines to “specifically include Facebook and public billboards, etc.” – while the criminal case against her is pending.  Murphy’s suit challenges the gag order on several grounds, including that the gag order is an unconstitutional prior restraint of speech in violation of the First Amendment, that the order is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and that the order violates New York bail laws.

“The ability to interact with others on social media – whether that be through ‘liking’ posts, commenting, or perusing timelines – is critical to the exercise of First Amendment rights in the modern day,” said First Amendment Clinic Summer Fellow Eman Naga.  “By blocking Murphy’s ability to use social media and express her views publicly, the gag order effectively strips Murphy of her voice.  It also sets a dangerous precedent for other criminal defendants to be unlawfully silenced, too – regardless of whether they share Ms. Murphy’s views about animal rights.”

“Asha’s Farm Sanctuary is founded on spreading hope and love,” stated Murphy.  “The gag order is inhibiting my ability to do just that, as well as my ability to fundraise for the Sanctuary and advocate for myself and the animals I care so deeply about helping.”

“The Supreme Court has made very clear that blanket gag orders like the one Ms. Murphy challenges are unacceptable under the First Amendment,” said Christina Neitzey, Stanton Fellow at the First Amendment Clinic and counsel for Murphy.  “Courts cannot pick and choose who gets to enjoy free speech rights based on factors like politics and personal lifestyle differences.  For the First Amendment to mean anything, we must all have these rights—vegans and ranchers alike.”

Murphy is represented in this suit by Neitzey, assisted by Clinic Summer Fellows Naga and Karem Lizbeth Herrera.  The matter is pending in Niagara County Supreme Court as Murphy v. Barnes, Index No. E180218/2023.

Murphy is represented in the parallel criminal matter by Chris Carraway with the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Wayne Hsiung of Direct Action Everywhere, and Bonnie Klapper, former federal prosecutor and current member of the Direct Action Everywhere Legal Team.  Murphy’s criminal defense team previously challenged the same gag order before Justice Barnes, as well as an earlier version of the gag order Town of Somerset Justice Pamela Rider imposed at Murphy’s arraignment.

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Contact: Christina Neitzey, cn266@cornell.edu, 607-255-4196

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Clinic Settles Appeal of Citizen Journalist’s Anti-SLAPP Win and Attorneys’ Fees Award in Geneva

Last month, Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic and co-counsel Greenberg Traurig LLP finalized a settlement agreement which allows citizen journalist James Meaney of Geneva, New York, to stand by his investigative reporting on local construction company Massa Construction, Inc. This agreement resolves a lawsuit Massa brought against Meaney and his watchdog blog The Geneva Believer nearly three years ago.

The suit centered around a series of articles in which Meaney examined — and at times criticized — the City of Geneva’s public works bidding and record keeping procedures generally, and the relationship between Massa and the City specifically.

Massa appealed two 2021 Ontario County Supreme Court decisions which dismissed Massa’s suit and awarded attorneys’ fees to Meaney’s legal team to the New York State Appellate Division, Fourth Department. The matter settled after briefing was complete on the appeals, but prior to oral argument before the Fourth Department.

Neither Meaney nor The Geneva Believer made any payment to Massa as part of the settlement. Meaney and his legal team maintain that —as Supreme Court, Ontario County, found — Meaney’s coverage of Massa contained no false statements of fact, alleged or implied.  Remaining details of the agreement are confidential.

“Citizen journalists like Jim Meaney are exactly who anti-SLAPP laws are intended to protect,” said Christina Neitzey, Stanton Fellow in the Cornell First Amendment Clinic.  “We are relieved that, through this settlement agreement, Jim can stand by his reporting and put this matter behind him.”

“I am deeply thankful that this case has reached a resolution,” said Meaney.  “If it weren’t for the countless hours of tireless, pro bono work by the Clinic’s exceptional team of students and attorneys, and by Greenberg Traurig, my case would have had a very different outcome. Citizen journalists like me who lack the resources to mount a free speech legal defense against deep-pocketed entities are extremely fortunate to have the Cornell First Amendment Clinic ready to help.”

Meaney was represented by Michael Grygiel of Greenberg Traurig LLP, along with the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic’s Stanton Fellow Christina Neitzey, Clinic Director Mark H. Jackson, former Clinic Associate Director Jared Carter, former Clinic Associate Director Cortelyou Kenney, and former teaching fellow Tyler Valeska.  Former First Amendment Clinic students Corby Burger, Michael Mapp, Rob Ward, Kasper Dworzanczyk, and James Pezzullo also contributed.

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Clinic Publishes Op-Ed on Judicial Transparency

Clinic Director Mark Jackson and Local Journalism Project Managing Attorney Heather Murray recently published an Op-Ed in the Albany Times Union to amplify the efforts of journalist Janon Fisher to shed light on the judicial appointment process in NYC. While the trial court in the Clinic’s public records suit ruled that candidate applications for appointed judgeships must be released to the public with minimal redactions to shield private information, an appellate court late last year made it harder to hold power to account by overturning the lower court. Mr. Fisher has sought leave to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals with the Clinic’s assistance. The Court takes up only a small percentage of the requests to hear cases like ours, but we’re hopeful that ours will be one of them.

Thanks to the fantastic Clinic team that has contributed to work on this case thus far starting way back in 2021, including Ava Lubell, Christina Neitzey, Connor Flannery (who argued before both the trial court and the Appellate Division), Nyssa Kruse, Svetlana (Aika) Riguera, and Sun Shen.

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Clinic Alum Argues to Unseal Settlement Records in Pennsylvania Wrongful Death Suit

Cornell First Amendment Clinic alum Connor Flannery ’23 argued in the Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County, on February 26, 2023, seeking access to sealed settlement agreements on behalf of local journalism client The Patriot News/PennLive. The Clinic’s client seeks access to the settlement agreements in a wrongful death suit to shed further light on an issue of great public concern involving a young mother killed by an oncoming train as she was exiting a boat ramp in Halifax, Pennsylvania. Also pictured are Mr. Flannery’s supervising attorneys Heather Murray, Managing Attorney of the Cornell Local Journalism Project, Paula Knudsen Burke, Local Legal Initiative Attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Diane Siegel Danoff, a partner at Dechert LLP.

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Clinic Secures Access to Dangerous Driving Records for News Outlet Streetsblog

After filing suit months ago against the NYC DOT on behalf of news outlet Streetsblog to seek access to basic information that is key to assessing the City’s pilot program aimed at curbing dangerous driving, the DOT produced documents to our client on Thanksgiving eve. Thanks to Clinic alumna Yifei Yang for her excellent work on this matter in preparing the Petition and accompanying brief.

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Fall 2023 First Amendment Clinic Bootcamp

What a great start-of-the-semester Bootcamp on Saturday, August 19, 2023, for our incoming students in the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic!

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Our students were treated to talks by the likes of Anne Galloway, Tim Cornell, Clinic Local Journalism Project Managing Attorney Heather Murray and recent alumnus Andrew Gelfand on the state of local news and their joint litigation work for pioneering non-profit news site VTDigger; returning Clinic students Patrick George, Cameron Misner, and Dominic Muscarella discussing with moderator, Clinic Fellow Christina Neitzey, how to excel in the Clinic environment; the incomparable Robbie Kaplan of Kaplan Hecker & Fink speaking to our students from the frontlines of the First Amendment; Professor Michael Dorf and Clinic Associate Director/Associate Clinical Professor Gautam Hans discussing the implications of the Supreme Court ruling in 303 Creative, and Co-chair of Greenberg Traurig’s National Media and Entertainment Litigation Group Michael Grygiel on the litigation twists and turns leading to very recent Federal Court decision dismissing the Nicholas Sandmann libel suit against Gannett and several other media organizations.

We are so grateful to all our clients, co-counsels, friends, Clinic alumni and returning students for taking the time and helping to make the day such a smashing success!

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Local Journalism Project News

Clinic Client Launches Wage Theft Monitor

New York news outlet Documented launched its Wage Theft Monitor, the largest public repository of data on New York businesses found guilty of wage theft, in August 2023. The Clinic worked hand-in-hand with Documented over the past four years to secure data from the New York Department of Labor via a lawsuit and subsequent negotiations surrounding multiple public records requests.

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Clinic Secures Reversal of School District Policy that Silenced Committee Members

In March 2023, New York’s Pittsford Central School District reversed a policy which mandated that all members of District committees “remain positive and supportive of the District and Committee at all times and in all settings.”  The change came after an Inclusivity Advisory Committee member raised First Amendment concerns about the policy and retained the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic to advise on the matter. The Clinic sent the District a letter on the member’s behalf detailing these concerns and urging the District to immediately remove the provision from its Committee Member Code of Conduct.

After being appointed to the District’s Inclusivity Advisory Committee last fall, the committee member declined to sign the mandatory Committee Member Code of Conduct.  The individual, a District parent, felt the “remain positive” provision may prevent committee members from advocating for historically excluded students and families and from providing constructive criticism of committee and District actions.  The District informed the individual that committee members must sign the Code of Conduct in its entirety or be replaced.

Effective July 1st, 2023, the District states that it will remove the entire “remain positive” provision from the Code of Conduct and replace it with a narrower provision that asks committee members to “advocate and work productively with the District, both within and outside of committee meetings, in order to solve problems as they arise.”  In the meantime, the District allowed the Clinic’s client to sign a version of the Code of Conduct with the “remain positive” provision deleted and the new provision inserted.  As a result, they will remain a member of the Inclusivity Advisory Committee without fear of being removed from the committee for exercising their First Amendment rights.

“With this change,” they stated, “other committee members and I will feel more welcome to share meaningful critiques of the District and speak up on behalf of marginalized students, without fear of removal.  I am grateful that the District has agreed to update the Code of Conduct and that I will be able to continue my work on the Inclusivity Advisory Committee.”

“School committees such as the Pittsford Schools’ Inclusivity Advisory Committee serve vital roles in improving and enhancing schools,” stated Christina Neitzey, Stanton Fellow in the First Amendment Clinic.  “But to effect real change, committee members must be able to voice concerns and criticisms as they arise, without fear of removal.  We are pleased that the District was responsive to our client’s concerns and made this change.”

“This decision marks an important step toward greater inclusion in the Pittsford Schools,” added Clinic student Alison Draikiwicz, who assisted in drafting the demand letter.  “Without this restriction on committee member speech, committee members will be freer to work meaningfully with the District, acknowledge issues within the District, and advocate for positive change.”

Although the District allowed the Clinic’s client to sign a version of the Committee Code of Conduct omitting the “remain positive” provision, the District did not respond to the Clinic’s inquiry about any plans on the District’s behalf to inform other current committee members that they are not bound by the “remain positive” provision between the present time and July 1, 2023, when the revised Code will take effect.

The First Amendment Clinic team was led by Clinic students Alison Draikiwicz, Cameron Misner, and Yifei Yang, and supervised by the Clinic’s Stanton Fellow Christina Neitzey.

Contact: Christina Neitzey, cn266@cornell.edu, (910) 620-5282